How did the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal lead to New Mexico’s lawsuit against Meta, what did the September 2026 jury decide about Meta’s statements on user data, hate speech and misinformation, which claims did it reject, how has Meta responded, what penalties and

New Mexico’s case grew out of allegations that Cambridge Analytica obtained millions of Facebook users’ data without their consent: the state argued that Facebook then misled residents about their control over personal information and the protections the platform provided.3 On September 25, 2026, a Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for more than 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer-protection law, but it did not set a penalty.34

• What the jury decided: It found Facebook’s statements misleading on user-data practices and on its policies for hate speech and misinformation. Reporting on the verdict says jurors found 26 of 29 statements false or deceptive, meaning they did not accept the state’s case on every statement.39 The available evidence does not reliably identify the three statements the jury rejected.
• Meta’s response: The supplied evidence does not establish Meta’s specific post-verdict response, so I cannot reliably characterize it.
• What New Mexico wants next: The state is asking the judge for the maximum civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation and an injunction to prevent future user-data breaches; the judge, not the jury, will decide the penalty and any ordered changes.34
• How it fits with the other cases: This was separate from New Mexico’s March 2026 child-safety trial, in which a jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million over allegations involving misleading safety claims and child sexual exploitation.8 It also proceeded separately from the August multistate settlement, which New Mexico did not join: Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve broader claims involving child safety, and the settlement also addressed privacy issues connected to the Cambridge Analytica breach.27